“It’s multiple deployments, the stop-loss and the extended deployments that are causing enormous problems for the psychological well-being of some of our soldiers,” said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.
May 1, 2008, Washington, DC – More and more troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues, so U.S. officials Thursday offered new plans to get them help.
Missouri Sen. Kit Bond proposed a bill opening the Veterans Affairs Department’s network of community-based, walk-in treatment centers to active duty troops and members of the National Guard and Army Reserve, in order to deal with what he called “invisible injuries.”
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates talked about the importance of removing the stigma from seeking help, adding that getting therapy “is not going to count against” troops when they apply for national security clearances — which has long been a question asked on clearance applications.
The new policy revises Question 21 on a “Questionnaire for National Security Positions,” allowing applicants to respond “no” as to whether they have sought mental health care over the past seven years if that care was “strictly related to adjustments from service in a military combat environment” and not court-ordered.
Bond, a senior Republican who co-chairs the Senate National Guard Caucus, said his plan would sidestep a military bureaucracy that has been slow and insensitive.
A recent study by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit policy think tank, found a third of the more than 1.6 million troops deployed to both wars since 2001 have returned with mental health or cognitive problems, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI).
“It’s multiple deployments, the stop-loss and the extended deployments that are causing enormous problems for the psychological well-being of some of our soldiers,” said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.
Bond’s bill, which he co-sponsored with Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, would also:
•Guarantee benefits for the survivors of former troops who committed suicide as long as the deceased had a history of PTSD or TBI.
•Permit the VA to screen a veteran’s discharge record to ensure that he or she was not removed from the service and denied benefits based on a misdiagnosis of PTSD, TBI or another medical condition.
